The present invention relates to a urine collection, preservation, and transportation device for obtaining an integrated urine specimen from a patient over a period of time.
Tests made on the urine of a patient can provide valuable information concerning the bodily condition of a patient, as urine contains waste products of bodily metabolism. Oftentimes in fact an early detection of the metabolic abnormalities which accompany a particular disease will lead to an early cure for the disease. Biochemical studies carried out on urine specimens is an effective way of detecting abnormalities. Since, however, body metabolism is affected by many variables including, for example, dietary excesses or inadequacies, it is often difficult to obtain specimens that are not unduly affected by such factor. To obtain truly representative samples, it is required that patients come into the hospital periodically to give specimens; on some occasions a controlled diet is required. This is of course, time consuming, expensive and inconvenient. Desirably, an integrated specimen taken under normal conditions of activity and diet over a 24 hour period would be preferable; however, heretofore collection of a single integrated specimen for multiple assays has not been possible because different biochemical assays frequently require different techniques of preservation.